Red Dawn
by Nightjar
Summary: Ginny's lost, and Harry can't find her. [HG, postHBP] [OneShot]


Miss Moony would like to say that she doesn't own Harry Potter and that she had no help with this story from Miss Wormtail, Miss Padfoot or Miss Prongs.

H/G. Post-HBP.

"_Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning."_

------- I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good -------

**Red Dawn**

'Where's Ginny?' was the first thing out of my mouth when I regained consciousness. Hermione, hovering anxiously over me, shook her head sadly.

'We don't know,' she told me. 'She never made it out. Fred and George have been trying to get in to search for her for a few days, but there's been no luck so far.'

My heart jumped into my throat. We had been halfway back to the Burrow when word came of Hogwarts' capture. Ginny was there; so were Luna and Neville, Seamus, Dean, and everyone else.

Fat lot of use killing Voldemort had been, if the Death Eaters would become even stronger without him: we'd all expected that, without him, they'd be in much the same state as they were after his first defeat. But they'd gambled everything on the Dark Order, and they weren't prepared to lose that bet.

And now they had Ginny, trapped inside a castled overrun by the self-professed Redeemers of Wizardkind. 'I can help,' I told Hermione, attempting to lever myself up off the ground, only to be halted by Hermione's hand on my shoulder.

'You're sick, Harry,' she said. 'And there's nothing we can do that isn't being done already.'

My eyes flashed. 'We _have_ to be able to do something,' I hissed at her. 'We defeated Voldemort, didn't we? What are a few Death Eaters to that?'

Hermione blinked, and then looked away from me. When she spoke, her voice was so quiet that I almost missed the words altogether. 'We're not invincible, Harry.'

I was seventeen, stubborn, and proud. My jaw stiffened, and I pretended I hadn't heard.

-------

'Owl from Bill, mate,' Ron told me cheerfully, one hand holding aside the tent-flap, the other clutching a letter as Pigwidgeon hooted and twittered as he danced on a nearby tree branch.

Hermione crouched outside the tent, re-tightening the pegs, since I was "sick" and Ron couldn't be trusted with any kind of muggle job. She yelped, loosing her concentration and missing the peg with the hammer as she heard me ask hopefully, 'They've found her?'

He shook his head. 'There's hope, though. They managed to find Justin Finch-Fletchley and Professor Slughorn and get them out alive.'

The news was good, but my heart sank nevertheless. I looked at Ron, who seemed so unbearably cheerful that something inside me wanted to punch him. 'How can you keep smiling?' I demanded harshly. 'She's your sister. Don't you _care_ that every day she's in there, the chances of our ever seeing her again get lower and lower?'

Ron's eyes hardened and he said furiously. 'Don't you dare tell me I don't care. She means more to me than she does to you, so just shut your mouth, Potter.'

And then he left.

Hermione came in a little while later, glanced at me sadly and said, 'He's hurting, Harry, more than you can tell. He just has his own way of coping with it. Just look at him, and then look me in the eyes and say that you think he doesn't care.'

I looked at Ron, while he lit the campfire with his wand, really looked. He looked so unbearably lost that it broke my heart just a little bit more.

I didn't apologise, and he never asked me to, but the next time we spoke, something in his voice told me that he'd forgiven me all the same.

-------

I didn't have to wait too much longer before Hermione deemed me fit enough to get out of the tent. The first thing we did after that was pack it up, so that we could get back on the move again.

'Careful you don't fall out of any more trees, Harry,' Ron chastised light-heartedly. I grinned at him in response, and jokingly offered to make an Unbreakable Vow.

He rolled his eyes, and punched me lightly in the arm.

We took three more days to reach the Burrow. Hermione could have apparated, but Ron and I didn't much care for side-along, and there was no way she was going to leave us to fend for ourselves for the duration of the rest of the journey.

Mrs. Weasley greeted us at the door, a relieved smile on her face. 'It's so good to see you all again, safe and sound,' she told us, and then smothered us in hugs and kisses and sent us all to bed.

Hermione kipped on the cot in Ron's room, while I took to the floor in Ginny's. It smelled of her still – of earth and flowers and old leather practice quaffles – and I curled myself in a ball of her pale pink blankets. It struck me that if we were to one day marry, this was what I would smell every night.

-------

We went out in the morning, and Fred and George asked us to help to infiltrate Hogwarts to search for Ginny and any other survivors. We all leaped at the chance, and soon enough we were so coated in glamour charms that they practically oozed out of our pores.

Hogwarts castle looked much the same as it ever had, to my surprise. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this unremarkable normality. Of course, the residents of the castle were far from the usual ones, and it was only when I saw Antonin Dolohov step out of the former Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom that I was reminded of the reason for my presence.

'Ginny?' I asked my stark, clear memory of her, 'Ginny, where are you?' In my head, she was dressed in jeans and a Weasley jumper, warm firelight dancing in her hair.

But we couldn't find her, no matter how hard she tried, and eventually I allowed myself to be persuaded to give up the search for the night.

We left the castle under the cover of darkness, and were halted only once in our exit by Lucius Malfoy, who stopped Ron, still disguised as one of his own followers. 'Deal with the Weasley girl, Mr…?'

'We-West, sir,' Ron answered demurely, only just catching himself before he tripped over his tongue and announced who he really was.

Malfoy regarded him suspiciously, and then attempted to move on. I stopped him. With a burst of uncontrolled magic that had been building up rapidly since he first mentioned Ginny's name.

The effects of the blast were satisfying, to say the least. The magical exhaustion that came after was a bummer.

-------

'Where's Ginny?' was the first thing out of my mouth when I regained consciousness. A blurred face hovered anxiously over me, but there was no one else here with us: I took a moment out to wonder why my group had left me here.

'Oh, you're awake,' the face said with a smile as the world swam into focus around me. She took my hand and pulled me to my feet. 'It's been a while, huh?'

I nodded dumbly, and then managed to ask her where we were. 'Home,' Ginny answered simply, taking me by the hand.


End file.
